Amy Widman
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs - Newark, and Professor of Law
Amy Widman joined Rutgers in 2019 and teaches torts, administrative law, legal writing, and law and inequality. Previously she was an associate professor of law at Northern Illinois University College of Law and deputy director at the National Center for Access to Justice at Fordham Law School.
Biography
Professor Widman's research focuses on increasing access to justice in administrative decision-making processes at the federal, state, and local levels. She has recently written on what administrative law can learn from the access to justice movement generally, the role of state administrative law judges in increasing access to justice in their hearing rooms, and best practices for federal agencies to identify and reduce burdens on the public. She is currently studying models for nonlawyer representation and other forms of increased assistance in federal, state, and local agency decision-making processes. She is Chair-Elect of the AALS Section on Empirical Study of Legal Education and the Legal Profession.
Additionally, Widman worked as a law faculty fellow in the Office of General Counsel at the Office of Management and Budget in 2022 and as a consultant with the Administrative Conference of the United States throughout 2022-2024. Professor Widman is a 2024/2025 American Bar Foundation Access to Justice Scholar. In that role, she is studying how people learn about and perform legal representation and what sources of nonlegal expertise are legitimized by legal stakeholders.
Professor Widman received her J.D. from New York University Law School and her B.A. in comparative literature and creative writing from Northwestern University. She clerked for Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In 2021, students and faculty awarded her Professor of the Year.
Publications
ARTICLES
Representation, Calibrated, 39 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics __ (forthcoming Fall 2025)
Tackling Administrative Burdens: The Legal Framework and Innovative Practices, 76 Administrative Law Review 243 (2024)(with Pamela Herd and Donald Moynihan)
The False Premise of State Administrative Adjudication, 61 Harvard Journal on Legislation 137 (2024)
"Inclusive Agency Design," 74 Administrative Law Review 23 (2022)
"Protecting Consumer Protection: Filling the Federal Enforcement Gap," 69 Buffalo Law Review 1157 (2021)
“Tracking Client Outcomes: A Qualitative Assessment of Civil Legal Aid’s Use of Outcomes Data, with Recommendations,” 25 Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice 435 (2019)(with David Udell)
"The Role of Data in Organizing an Access to Justice Movement," 87 Fordham Law Review Online 196 (2019)(with James Gamble)(invited)
“Strategies of Public UDAP Enforcement,” 55 Harvard Journal on Legislation 37 (2018) (with Prentiss Cox and Mark Totten)
“Interpretive Independence: The Irrelevance of Judicial Selection and Retention Methods to State Statutory Interpretation,” 70 NYU Annual Survey of American Law 377 (2015)
“The Rostrum Principle: Why the Boundaries of the Public Forum Matter to Statutory Interpretation,” 65 Florida Law Review 1447 (2013)
“State Attorneys General Use of Concurrent Public Enforcement Authority in Federal Consumer Protection Laws,” 33 Cardozo Law Review 53 (2011) (with Prentiss Cox)
“Advancing Federalism Concerns in Administrative Law Through a Revitalization of Enforcement Powers: A Case Study of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008,” 29 Yale Law & Policy Review 165 (2010)
“Liability and the Health Care Bill: An ‘Alternative’ Perspective,” 1 California Law Review Circuit 57 (2010)(Invited)
“Federal Administrative Health Courts Are Unconstitutional: A Reply to Elliott, Naryan, and Nasmith,” 33 Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law 799 (2008)(with Francine Hochberg)(invited, peer reviewed)
“The Racial Implications of Tort Reform,” 25 Washington University Journal of Law & Policy 161 (2007)(with Joanne Doroshow)
“Why Health Courts are Unconstitutional,” 27 Pace Law Review 55 (2006)
“Replacing Politics with Democracy: A Proposal for Community Planning in New York City and Beyond,” 11 Journal of Law & Policy 135 (2002)
TESTIMONY
Testimony, "Contingent Fees and Conflicts of Interest in State AG Enforcement of Federal Law," U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, February 2, 2012
BOOK REVIEWS
“Representing Justice,” 64 Journal of Legal Education 348 (2014)
BOOK CHAPTERS
"Class Actions," in Consumer Survival: An Encyclopedia of Consumer Rights, Safety and Protection, Reiboldt, W., & Horn Mallers, M., eds., ABC-CLIO Publishers (2013)(invited)
"Consumer Product Safety Commission," in Consumer Survival: An Encyclopedia of Consumer Rights, Safety and Protection, Reiboldt, W., & Horn Mallers, M., eds., ABC-CLIO Publishers (2013)(invited)